Nov 20, 2001
By DAN GELSTON
Associated Press Writer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Whether it was a layup off a fast break, putting back an offensive rebound or cutting to the basket, Shereka Wright found herself in the paint.
Wright scored 19 points and Mary Jo Noon added 14 as No. 11 Purdue beat Valparaiso 76-58 Tuesday night.
Laura Meadows had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Purdue (2-1).
Wright was 9-for-17, with all but three shots coming in the lane. She played 35 minutes and had six rebounds.
"We always want to go inside to get the offense going," she said. "It was open for us and it turned out to be productive."
For the second game, the Boilermakers broke away behind an aggressive defense. They led 49-26 after Meadows' layup early in the second half.
Valparaiso's Suzie Hammel, who scored 17, made four straight 3-pointers to cut it to 56-40. Jeannette Gray hit a 15-footer and Jenna Stangler made a 3 to make it 58-45.
Hammel sank her fifth straight 3 without a miss to slice the deficit to 12. That was as close as the Crusaders (0-2) would get.
Valparaiso was 7-for-11 from 3-point range in the second half. Marlous Nieuwveen scored 13 points.
Hammel said she could tell during shoot around she didn't have her shot.
"I don't know what happened in the first half," she said. "I just wasn't hitting at all through practice."
The Boilermakers made only three of 11 3's and Purdue coach Kristy Curry said they would have to improve from the outside. They came in shooting 29 percent from 3-point range in the first two games.
"I was disappointed because I don't think our perimeter did a very good job of getting open," Curry said. "We worked on it the last couple of days, but we seemed not to do very well."
Led by Meadows, the Boilermakers held a 40-29 rebounding edge. But Curry was disappointed Purdue allowed 13 offensive rebounds.
The Crusaders, who lost their first game to national champion Notre Dame, couldn't find their shot early against the team that lost to the Irish in the title game.
Valparaiso shot 29 percent in the first half and Purdue led 36-20.
Wright snapped a tie game with a layup off Kelly Komara's steal to cap a fast break and give Purdue a 12-10 lead.
The Boilermakers then made 11 of their next 20 shots. Wright and Komara both converted steals into layups. Komara gave Purdue an 18-point lead when she hit a 3 with 1:41 left.
Curry pointed to 17 turnovers as proof Purdue was sometimes sloppy on the fast break.
"We have to got to improve our transition decision making in every aspect," she said. "We do want to look to run, but we've got to run smart. I did see at times we did force some things and could have made better decisions, but there were more positive than negative with that."
Crusaders coach Keith Freeman said Purdue scored too many points in the paint.
"They were driving every which way on us and that caused us tremendous problems," he said. "They were allowed to reverse the ball whenever they wanted. When they're allowed to do that they can advantage of us and they did."
Komara added 11 points.